#nomihoudai

Happy Hour

But nobody cares.

On Friday night, Matt and I went out for a crazy izakaya night that was organised by a Canadian JET in our area for the JETs living in our area. Most of the usual crew joined us. This is how I talk now.

We ended up sitting with our pal Max and out of everyone present, the three of us hit the two hour all you can drink the hardest. I was fairly plastered when we left the izakaya place, which made me a really friendly talking to person.

The dinner ended up being massive dollars because it was pre-booked and some of the blokes ended up bailing. To recover from empty wallets, we all decided to hit up some karaoke. This was my second karaoke experience in Japan and my first while being drunk. It was absolutely amazing! I was hammered and thought I was really talented so nothing could stop me! Tunes of the night include: Total Eclipse of the Heart, My Heart Will go On (beautiful duet by Max and myself), Space Oddity, All the Small Things, Africa, Come Together, Baby one More Time, Wonderwall and others. During the ballads, I powered up like never before and I think people were moved to tears by the beauty.

Before the night even started, Matt and I headed into Tachikawka early because it had been awhile since I spent some money at a book store. I bought some stationary and a diary totaling about 2,500 yen. I had to carry the book store bag around with me for the rest of the night. I was doing SO well with that in the state that I was in. Until we were outside a convenience store drinking beer (because you can!) with Max, Courtney and some Japanese guys and I realised the bag wasn’t with me. Matt and I went back to the karaoke place (which was thankfully next door) and I asked the guy there about my bag, probably in the most perfect Japanese I have spoken since arriving here. He was stupidly helpful and let us go and search the room we had been in. NO BAG. He then escorted us to the front desk (I was swigging from a can of Suntory beer while this was going on) and said we could watch the surveillance camera footage of ourselves doing karaoke. I am just going to say now that watching myself on video doing drunk karaoke while still being drunk was one of the weirdest experiences of my whole life. We watched it all sped up, just so at the end of the video the guy could like “no bag”. 

I went into the convenience store with this news and realised that the book store bag was behind the counter! I had obviously put it on the ground while purchasing beers and ice cream and because we’re in Japan, it was always going to get handed in because people generally aren’t huge assholes, or even small ones here!

This left Matt and I to converse with our crew with full happiness. We ended up talking to our Japanese friends mostly about ramen and Pokemon for about two hours and added them on Line messenger so that we can all study together. At this point it was about 4am. When we started our night, Matt and I rode our bikes to the monorail station closest to our place and caught the monorail in. We had missed the last one by about four hours at this point, and the earliest one would be in another two hours. There was no way I could walk home because my shoes were tearing my feet up. When you are in this sort of situation, the only thing to do is eat huge bowls of ramen with Courtney and Max. We did just that! Then we walked to a park while singing Old Gregg’s tunes. We realised the park was freezing so we went back to Max’s house were Matt fell asleep sitting at a table. When it was time to catch the monorail, Matt had a sneaky vom in a plant on the way to the monorail station. We are classy as hell.

Arriving in Japan, I suddenly feel like a human again. We are currently riding the shinkansen (bullet train) from Osaka to Hiroshima, and it kind of encompasses all that Japanese society is about: order, timeliness and efficiency. There is more leg room than I know what to do with, and more personal space than I've had at any hostel, nevermind public transportation. This is the way to travel.

If only getting here had been as pleasant an experience. We had booked a flight with China Eastern from Hanoi to Osaka with a hefty eleven hour stopover in Kunming, China. Somehow one stopover became three, with brief, seemingly pointless flights between Nanning, Kunming and Shanghai before we finally arrived in Osaka. Aside from the sheer annoyance of having to switch planes, we had a bit of an issue at Nanning where we were ushered to the immigration desk only to be questioned about our lack of a Chinese visa. We explained that we weren't trying to get into China, and actually hadn't planned on being in Nanning at all. Eventually they seemed to comprehend the situation, at least enough to grant us a twenty four hour visa, and we were on our way to Kunming where we'd be spending the night.

After visiting the twenty four hour airport McDonald's, we scoped out the most comfortable looking bench and made ourselves at home. Needless to say, it kind of sucked. Sleeping in public places is never an enjoyable experience, especially with the fluorescent lights overhead, the hard wooden bench and the eight degree weather in Kunming. Desperate times call for desperate measures, so I popped a couple of sleeping pills which did the trick as I actually managed to get a few hours of sleep.

  I've become pretty accustomed to sleeping wherever I happen to be and washing up in public bathrooms, but living like a homeless person definitely takes a toll after a while, and we were more than happy to finally arrive at our final destination.

From the moment we entered the airport, it was clear we weren't in Southeast Asia anymore. After three months of squat toilets, arriving in Japan is quite a shock to the system; the toilets here are feats of technological genius, and can do anything short of making you a sandwich. After testing out all the bells and whistles that make up the Japanese bathroom experience (and trust me, it's an experience) we made our way to the train station in the direction of Shin-Imamiya, and the location of our airbnb. 

When we first arrived here I was a bit intimidated, as the language barrier is more prevalent than anywhere I've been before. However, the people we've met have been so warm and welcoming, my initial hesitation has completely evaporated. It can be a bit of a challenge to navigate the big cities, but a few moments of standing on the street corner looking bewildered and a local will inevitably offer to point you in the right direction. More often than not they will actually escort you to your destination, even if it takes them out of their way. The first couple of times this happened, I was blown away.

It also helps to have a friend who can act as a translator. Our first night in Osaka, we met up with my friend Emily who has been living in Japan for almost two years now. Her ability to communicate with the locals is seriously impressive, and I'm determined to pick up at least a few phrases during our time here. We'd been fiending for sushi for the last few months, and she brought us to a great little spot not far from Dotonburi, where we had some of the best sushi and sashimi I've tasted, everything freshly prepared before our eyes. I could write a whole blog about eating in Japan, and we spend a good bit of our time here sampling local specialties. From takoyaki to tempura, okonomiyaki, soba and udon, we've just barely scratched the surface.

We've been fortunate to meet many Japanese speaking friends, which has really added to our experience in Osaka. Our airbnb roommates, all living and working in Japan, brought us out to give us a taste of the famed Osaka nightlife. We started the evening off at an izakaya (Japanese-style pub) complete with nomihodai and our own private room. Nomihodai is one of the most affordable ways to drink in Japan, and it entails unlimited drinks for a set amount of time, We paid 800 yen (about 8 dollars) for two hours, which is unheard of. The izakaya closed around midnight, and we bar hopped for a little bit, wandering the streets and stopping by a couple of places where the guys knew the bartender or the owner. 

Our final stop was King's Stone. We piled into a tiny elevator that brought us up a couple of floors to this cozy reggae club with a good crowd of young locals. Being the only foreigners there, we invited some curious looks, but beyond that, the DJs were really cool guys who loved to joke around with our Japanese speaking friends. The great vibe of the place made up for my lack of understanding and the general feeling of being an outsider. We partied until the police showed up, which kind of put a damper on things. By that time the sun was coming up anyway, and we decided to hit the road.